Pastel sky, zen factory, mount crud

With rain in the forecast, it stayed remarkable dry for this bike ride, not even a drop. This scene shows part of the old gantry crane, it was used to load and unload cargo from the train cars onto boats. Now its just an iconic structure. I used a dreamy pastel colour sceheme for the rest of the painting, trying to make some of those 'happy trees' that Bob Ross used to talk about. 

Pastel sky gantry crane canal, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Making a visit to the Zen Factory, which is my nickname for this derlict factory warehouse that is now a graffiti haven. This scene shows the side view near rue st Patrick, although I am standing on Boulevard de la Vérendrye. The city is making plans for this location, probably a community housing development. There is a lot of wildlife here, so too bad it wont be a forest. 

Zen factory horizontal, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Some young lads were looking around, trying to get into this place. They kept staring back at me, thinking I was a cop probably, but then went ahead and climbed onto the roof and through a window anyways. Watch out for the tetanus! I wont get near the place, last time I wheeled my bike onto the asphalt around the building I got a flat tire and a rip in my bike pack. All the graffiti was changed to be my intials and year. 

Zen factory vertical, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

I got a close up view of Mount Crud... that is, the giant pile of snow that is created from snow removal during winter. The black colour is probably gravel and tire particles... I wonder how many car keys, money, glasses, and other lost objects are in that pile? It was a towering hill, probably ten or so stories high. Getting the charcoal-shades correct was harder that is seems, I used mixtures of violet (PV55), blue (PB60), yellow ochre (PY43), burnt umber (PBr7), charcoal black (PBk6), red ochre (PR101)... is there any paint I did not use? 

Mount crud, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026  

Decarie expressway Spring yet?

Decarie is a sunken highway, about two stories down and walled with concrete, it goes north to south along the east side of NDG. All around it there are pockets of grass and trees which offers a rare chance to paint nature, like natural nature, not landscaped or manicured. Well they do mow the grass so I suppose that counts as being manicured. This creepy tree, as seen in the foreground, was done with a near black mix of carbon black (PBk6), indo blue (PB60) and burnt umber (PBr7). 

Decarie creepy tree, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

 Here is a close-up scene of the bridge over Decarie running along st Jacques, with a few off ramps visible. I am standing up on a cul-de-sac, that is a round dead end of a street. If is a good place to stand and paint with views of the highway and city-vista to the south. 

Bridge over Decarie, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Another scene next to the Decarie, these pine trees have a spot to themselves, and a giant puddle was reflecting. In the background, the trees line the train tracks, although there were few trains going by on the weekend. 

Pine trees and puddles, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Sumac, billboard moonscape

The other day I noticed a nook of grass and sumac trees along Upper Lachine road, with a view of the Decarie and st Jacques bridge in the background. I walked up into the area with my bike and did this painting looking south. To make the sumac colour, its mostly yellow ochre (PY43), mixed perylene maroon (PR179). Once I practiced a few of them, I could make the sumac shape with one press of a small #2 brush. My brushes are getting pretty beat up by now, winter is always hard on the brushes. 

Sumacs Decarie, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Last year, I did some painting in an empty lot along st Jacques street and wondered if there would be a renaturalization effort by the city. Today I saw that the entire lot had been leveled and covered in gravel, packed down. It looks more like a development, although being so close to the escarpment, considering its probably landfill, I wonder if they are even allowed to build condos here. Still hoping for that re-naturalization project. The scene was a moonscape, complete with PJD 26 billboard. 

Billboard moonscape, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026  

More Griffintown construction

Griffontown was once a light industrial, warehouse and storage area that grew up around the peel basin which used to be a major shipping and receiving port. Looking at Google Maps street views from 2012, and you can still see all the old structures, just a few stories high, a labyrinth of streets, parking lots and alley ways. Now its mostly all filled in with glass condo skyscrapers and hipster restaurants and cafes which is cool I suppose. This construction is right beside one of the small offshoots of the Lachine canal. In the middle ground you see an iron wall, its actually keeping the whole Lachine canal at bay as they dig down. Its a wonder they can dig down so much and put in a foundation given the virtual river right next door. 

Construction vehicle Griffintown, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

This is one of the few 'old lots' left over in Griffintown, probably because its some sort of utility building. The building in the middle is an old warehouse converted into shops and condos. I just wanted to paint this kind of thing because it typically wont last long... one day it will just be a memory on Google Map street view, not to mention, my blog!

Old lot Griffintown, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Here is a scene of the Lachine canal offshoot, a berm of earth, then the iron fencing walls around the giant hole they are digging. The water was still largely frozen on top, in fact, it was so cold I had to bail on the painting trip since I had dressed for warmer weather but it was bitterly cold. 

Foundations and canal, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Bit of sun in Montreal

Maisonneuve still has a few car washes, small car mechanics, and a few light industrial buildings, although three such locations were replaced with condo complexes recently. The city gave grants to the condo developers to build those condos in order to create more affordable housing albeit near the train tracks. In the painting you see a car wash with a car inside, and the red/grey bricks on the outside. The grey is there because the owners have to paint over graffiti. In the alleyway there was a big graffiti by SCRIBE which I replaced with PJD. 

Car wash red grey bricks, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

For lack of a better term I call this the triangle forest, its a small triangle of grass at the end of the old Maisonneuve bike path near Vendome metro. If you had to name a forest after me, this would be it, Peter's forest... I actually take care of the trees here, removing invasive vines and adding fertilizer when needed. Lately there is garbage all around, if the city doesn't move it, maybe I will when I have more time and things dry out a bit.  

Triangle forest, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

From Upper Lachine road there are good views of the Decarie overpass bridge, it is part of rue st Jacques which runs east west along the escarpment. Its a good scene, today was just a quick painting of it without all the details rendered. Looks like more rain on the forecast for awhile! 

Decarie overpass bridge, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026  

Van Horne Rosemont overpass

Where Van Horne avenue meets boulevard Rosemont there is an overpass that goes over st Urbain and st Laurent. It is roughly the boundary of Mile End and beginning of Le Plateau neighborhood. Montreal agreed to demolish the overpass and replace it with a new structure which will no doubt create serious traffic chaos in this part of town for some time. No sign of any work as of yet. This scene shows the east end of the overpass bridge, it descends into rue st Denis and the Rosemont Metro station area. 

Rosemont overpass bus, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Here is a scene of dirty snow piles melting into a parking lot, with concrete dividers and the overpass seen in the upper right. Trees grow along this area, just wild trees that happen to take seed there. In the background there is a billboard and rows of triplex 'Plateau style' housing. 

Dirty snow piles overpass, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

After many years of construction,  in fact, I painted a frontal view of this area when they were building it back in 2019. Behind me is a massive bus depot covered in a sloping roof covered in grass, trees and paths. Its a park on top of a bus depot. This scene is standing up towards the high point of the new park, looking south to the Rosemont overpass. An ambulance went by. I think this scene will be good when the trees have leaves. The bus depot is neat too, but I will need a warm sunny day to paint it properly.  

Overpass view from Park Bellechasse, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, April 2026 

Nature veto

Spending a lot of time around Montreal and I see small pieces of nature here and there, usually around highways, near fences, or back in parking lots. These spaces are fleeting because every square meter of Montreal must be developed with sidewalks, concrete containers, parks benches and plenty of interlocking stone bricks. I usually get a few months or years at most to paint such scenes. A perfect example was the Champ-de-Mars station, if you click that blog and scroll down, there was a huge field of wild daisies, incredible like a hillside in Switzerland or something. It didn't last long because the city has been digging up and pouring concrete there for the last five years. Thus, whenever and wherever nature can be found, Montreal has to veto it, and get the bulldozers fired up. 

Nature veto, watercolour 9 x 12" watercolour paper, April 2026